Eco-Wedding Decor: Soy Candles Needed

As our wedding gets ever nearer (somewhat unnervingly, our wedding website includes a "countdown" of days before the event...we're down to 44 days), we are getting more and more specific in the items we're searching for. I've been canvassing the antique and thrift stores in my town for elevated glass cake plates and containers for beverages. As I believe I've mentioned in my blog before, our plan is to use the many, many vintage jars and bottles I've collected as candle and flower holders, as well as holders for silverware and to create hanging lanterns. Now that the glass collecting part is pretty well wrapped up, I need to focus on the more boring details of the plan: Finding (cheap) bulk soy candles. I'm going to go looking at stores in my town to see what kind of deals I can find, but I may have better luck ordering in bulk from an online source.

Here's what I've found so far:

Candle Soylutions offers bulk soy tealights with paper wicks at $130 for a box of 500. I was thinking I should choose votives over tealights, but they claim their testers burned for 7 1/2 hours—far longer than the length of the reception. And, at the lower price, I could have backup tea lights rather than a bunch of half-burned votives. They also have a pretty reasonable deal on unscented soy votives: $10 for a box of 18 (if you order more than six boxes).

Another reasonable deal I found on bulk soy votives is at Romance by Shirlee, which has a price of $78.12 for six boxes of 12 votives. I'm a little confused, though, because there is a note saying there is a minimum wholesale order of $250 for "free private labeling." Not sure if all wholesale orders have a minimum of $250, or if that's just if you want labeling (which I don't). I also would prefer pure essential oils for scented candles, if I chose to have a scent. I am not sure if Shirlee's "aromatherapy" scents are all essential oils. I need to e-mail the company to find out more.

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BsaB Candles also offer soy tealights made with a cotton wick. They cost $40 for 100 candles. Not a bad deal, but still nowhere near the bulk price available through Candle Soylutions.

I know a ton of other companies offer soy candles in beautiful tins or glass containers, but for my needs, these are the best I've found. Please comment with other places to look! I love and appreciate everyone's suggestions—both for myself and for all those other conscientious wedding planners out there.

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